


As I lay Dreaming

by Kimmzie



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Christmas, F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-12
Updated: 2017-12-22
Packaged: 2019-02-13 20:22:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12991818
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kimmzie/pseuds/Kimmzie
Summary: Happy Holidays! I wrote this after the Doctor Who Christmas special set at the North Pole.  The Twelfth Doctor  has a sort of psychic link with The Meta-crisis Doctor (Tentoo). The Dream crabs are upon the Twelfth Doctor and Rose is fighting to save him. Rose Tyler/Doctor





	1. Chapter 1

by Kimmzie  
North Pole –Christmas Eve

There was a numb pain pulsating into the Doctor's temples. Oh, the Dream crab was still drinking his brain through a crazy straw. The expedition people and Clara looked at him with wide, frightened eyes. Of course, they were all dying.

"What do we do Doctor?"

"I don't know," he replied. He closed his eyes and he was alone.

"Hello Doctor," a voice said, steadily from behind him. It sent a chill down his spine and his hearts seized. It couldn't be. "Still rude and not ginger, I see. Well, nice to know some things don't change." He knew she was smiling with her tongue playfully peeking out the corner of her mouth.

"You're not real, Rose. You can't be," he said, finally facing the blonde in the familiar leather jacket.

"It's all quite wibbley- wobbley, dreamy-weamy." She scrunched up her nose.

Her footsteps fell heavy on the frozen floor. "You better watch out, you better not run, you better not grouch. I'm telling you why." Rose wagged a finger. "Santa Clause is coming to town," Rose sang the carol slightly off key. "And I don't want you to die," she sniffed. She put her arms around him and they both were solid. She was as warm in his arms as he remembered.

"You're still not real," he whispered into her hair.

"Dream logic," she replied nonchalantly with a shrug. "There's still a half-human clone out there in a parallel world that has a slight psychic connection to you." She looked up into the Doctor's cold, blue eyes. "He sees you when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake; he knows if you've been bad or good or even regenerate. Urg can you please stop having me sing that?" she asked, as she rolled her eyes. He raised an impressive eyebrow. "It's your dream, Doctor. I may or may not be a construct. I may be here through a weird Time Lord psychic link, but you control it."

"What do I have to do Rose?" he asked, wearily.

"Now, you're getting it. You are all dying; but, you already know that," she finished and put her hand up to silence the Time Lord. "It is so bad that you have my Doctor in a sort of healing coma. I don't want my husband's Time Lordy brain eaten away." The Doctor's eyes flicked to the simple band on her finger.

"There are four scientist or whatever. Why only four manuals? Don't they have some friends in the infirmary? What are they even doing there? Think. You are so much cleverer than this." She started to look flustered. "Doctor, you're waking up out of this dream. Trust Santa and help Clara." She looked up at him her hazel eyes twinkling and quickly she brushed his lips with a kiss. "Hurry up then. Use that big ole Time Lord brain and save Christmas. Believe in Santa." She snapped her fingers and he was back with the others.

The Doctor was awake relatively, he was still in one of the dreamscapes. Nevertheless, he knew what to do. Rose's lingering touch caressed his sides and his lips tingled. The pain on his temples still pounded. Oh, but his blood was buzzing. Tonight would not be his last Christmas. He reached for the procedure manuals and smiled at how clever he was.

Pete's World:

The cardiac monitor beeped with the steady beat of the Doctor's singular heart. His breathing was heavy, but not labored. Rose could tell by the readout translated by their new TARDIS that he was simply in a deep, deep sleep.

"Who's sleeping beauty now?" she asked uneasy as she rested her head near the top of the hospital bed. She played around with his spikey hair. It slid easily through her shaky fingers. "You said, 'go see him, and you'd wake up.' How long do I wait? It's already been too long." She looked at a wrist that had no watch. She shook her head. His breathing was getting more labored. Time ticked endlessly by and soon he was wheezing hard. The precious oxygen he inhaled was barely being sucked into his lungs. "I'm going back in." She touched his temples and focused on the Doctor.

London Flat:

Rose blinked around and seemed to be inside a flat in London. "Must've not woken up yet," she murmured. She heard some rumbling upstairs and decided to go up. The Doctor was hugging an aged Clara, her face was obscured by his shoulder, but her hair was gray.

"I'm so glad you finally woke up." The Doctor smiled.

"Do you see me any different now?"

"You'll always be the same Clara to me." He returned her to his embrace. Rose smiled and rubbed her own cheeks.

"Uh excuse me, hello?" Rose waved from the doorway. The Doctor's eyes grew wide.

"Rose! But that means," he trailed off and looked down to Clara's face.

"He did say, 'dream, within a dream, within a dream, and some more squished in.' He was still sleeping and not waking up. He's barely breathing." Rose swayed nervously in the doorway.

"I'm still dreaming?" Clara asked.

"Oh yes, you are," Rose said calmly. "It would be fantastic if you'd wake up." Clara looked down at the bed. "I lost someone. If I don't wake up it doesn't have to… hurt so much." Rose exchanged a quick glance with the Doctor.

"I lost someone. I've lost a lot of people. It's the curse of longer lifespan; that story is complicated and we don't have enough time to go into it. I lost a very important someone a long time ago." The Doctor was suddenly deathly still. "In the end there really wasn't a way back to him." She sighed. "I still love him," Rose met the Doctor's eyes. She could feel hot tears welling up and she dropped her gaze first. "We go on. We go off and have fantastic lives like they would have wanted us to. Carry and acknowledge the pain and loss, yeah? But don't get lost in it. Don't live your life as if it were a dream." Rose spread out her hands. "It's time to wake up Clara Oswald, the Impossible Girl."

"Will you be there?" Clara looked to the Doctor.

"Of course, I will be. It's time to get going on with this fantastic life." With that the graying woman in her nighty was gone.

"We don't have much time. I'm going to wake up soon." The Doctor said, bluntly.

"You got to drive Santa's sleigh," Rose said with a cheeky grin. Her hand lightly caressed his cheek and found his silver hair. "He's going to be so jealous." More lines formed on the Doctor's face as he frowned. "Oh get off it. Same man different face, remember? Anyway, I get a download every time I appear in these dreamscapes. I have a marital-mind bond with the other you and it is partially connected to you. It's more powerful in your subconscious and it was amplified by these creatures. I'm all up to date."

"You act like you've done this. Have you been in here before?" he asked, his hand covering her own.

"I've gotten pulled in once or twice. Not this kind of situation, only when the psychic link is strengthened or under duress." Rose shrugged.

"S'some of those times you were real?" The Doctor looked shocked. "You were actually there?"

"Dreamily, Weamily speaking… yup. You're waking up." Rose said, coolly. Without another word she was in the Doctor's embrace. She felt a peck on her hair and smiled into his black jumper.

"Merry Christmas, Rose Tyler."

"Rose Tyler Noble," she held up her left hand. "Merry Christmas," she stood on her tip toes to reach his ear. She whispered a collection of syllables the Doctor hadn't heard in ages and she ended it with a quick nip. He involuntarily shivered. "I know. I love you whatever regeneration," she finished with a smile and was gone in the blink of an eye.

The Doctor was soon opening his own eyes to a grinning Clara.

Pete World:

"Hellooo, Rose? It's Christmas are you ever gonna wake up?" Her Doctor was shaking her gently.

"Wh'at?" Rose's wiped some drool from the side of her mouth and straightened herself in the chair. "You were the one in the induced healing coma, Mister. You were so worried about protecting that clever brain of yours. I'm not sure what psychic mush looks like but…." Rose trailed off her groggy mind lost the thought. She looked up at him in his jim-jams, sporting a severe case of bed head and she felt relief.

"Yes, thank you for that. Best Christmas Present yet, saving my life." He sat down on the bed next to her.

"Don't we get that for each other every Christmas?" she asked. The Doctor frowned.

"Well, maybe more than most. But come on, we have a real tree that won't attack you this year, or set on fire. It even has presents under it." Rose slowly got up and stretched. The Doctor took her hand in the slightly cooler one that was full Time Lord. "Thank you," he whispered as they walked down the hall.

"Oh and he uh' knows," Rose mumbled.

"Knows?" the Doctor asked quirking an eyebrow.

"He knows that you can spy on him through the telepathic link," Rose said quickly.

"Well, that might get interesting," he replied rubbing his chin. "It goes both ways. I'm surprised he hasn't noticed. It's been a very, very long time. We'll deal with that later. Right now it's presents, Christmas, and other Yuletide merriment."

"What type of merriment would that be?" He pulled a piece of mistletoe out of his bathrobe and smiled.

"Just the merriest or merriment that could ever be," he was cut off as Rose stole a kiss. He smiled against her lips and pushed her back against the wall so he could show off some of his moves.


	2. Chapter 2

The Doctor pressed Rose up against the wall and tried to show her his gratitude. He felt a tug and rush at his mental barriers as he continued their merriment. Rose was playing around at his pulse point and made it up to his ear when he gently pulled her away. 

“Rose…” he stuttered, “he knows."

“Yeah, I already told ya that. C’mon I was busy.” She tried to pull him closer by the belt of his robe. 

The Doctor did not budge. “Well, yes you did. But, he wants to talk to you,” he added running a hand through his bed-head, sheepishly. 

“Now he does? After all this time?”

“That’s why I tried to keep it quiet for this long. You’ve been discovered. He’s being quite insistent. Blimey, I’m getting a migraine. Scottish this time round, I see.” 

Rose nodded and worried her lip. “You just came back.”

“Clearly you made quite an impression.” The Doctor waggled his eyebrows. “You always do. Oh, he is rude. Oww… My head. He just keeps going. I’m going to have to go into another coma for some respite.”

“Not funny, Mister. Some things never change. Rude and not ginger. His eyebrows are better than yours, I must say. But, what does he want?”

“I’m not sure. You’re probably going to have to go and find out. Hmm…” The Doctor closed his eyes and was silent for a moment. “Have a seat and I’ll connect you two. I’m going to stay out of this ok?”

“No peaking,” Rose glared and pointed at him as she settled down in a chair. 

“Cross my heart. Remember I’ve only got one and it belongs to you.” He gave her a peck on the forehead and touched his fingers to her temples. “See you soon, love.”

It only took a second or two for Rose to start snoring- she must be coming down with a cold. The Doctor propped her up with some pillows and concentrated on keeping the mental connection open.  
\--

Rose knew she was in a dreamscape again. However without the sense of impending doom or a goal in mind, she wasn’t sure what to do. It resembled the original TARDIS library the new, new, new, new (however many news) Doctor had his back facing her. He was sitting on a plush sofa facing the fire place that had a small fire going. 

“Doctor. You rang?” she asked. “As much as you can ring me now-a-days. Talk about collect calls.”

“Rose,” he said, his accent rolling the “r” a bit. He patted the seat next to him. 

“Okay.” She sat down and folded her hands in her lap. “What now? You interrupted my Christmas twice. Ever since I met you I can never have a Christmas without mayhem.” 

The Doctor frowned.

“Wouldn’t have it any other way.” She smiled with her tongue poking out from the side of her mouth. “What do you need or want Doctor?”

“I just wanted to say thank you. You saved Clara… and me.”

“And? I’ve been married to you, sort of, for about a hundred years.”

“And… You know what? Rose Tyler Noble it’s not fair. You know my name. Apparently, you know all about my life but I know nothing about yours. You’ve been spying on me all these years and I had no idea.”

“You left me with a you, who is not you, but still is you.” Rose considered the fire for a moment. “Then you got married to River Song,” she whispered.

“That was necessary.”

“She loves, loved you and that’s very me,” she sighed.

“I need to know how many of those dreams were you, and not my subconscious. How long has this been going on?”

“Whenever you are under psychic distress, or I guess the wind blows in the right direction, or your synapses fire and the boom I am here... I felt your regeneration. I kind of saw it. What do you want Doctor? I thought the door was closed.” Her body language betrayed her as she leaned into his shoulder.

“Only one way,” he grumbled.

“You made a choice for me and yourself on a beach centuries ago. Some things need saying, Doctor.” He was silent as her hands became neatly folded in his lap.

“You’ve been sneaking in and out for years. You, you Rose Tyler are a peeping-tom,” his voice raised, as well as the attack eyebrows.

Rose tried to hold back a laugh at his indignation. “It’s not like I can really control that. I just get sucked in. I thought they were dreams at first.”

“Then you learnt better?”

Rose nodded. “I’ll tell you that bit later on.” She squeezed his hand.

“I don’t know how I missed it for so long. But now I know, I can make it work both ways.”

Rose gave him a half smile. 

“I need to your help, Rose. You helped me figure out who I was once. This regeneration has been hard. Who am I? Am I the warrior, a madman, a good man, a bad man, or just an idiot with a box? I don’t know who I am anymore.”

“Missy?” Rose whispered. “She did a number on you this time didn’t she?”

“Gallifrey wasn’t there when I looked for it,” he trailed off and hung his head. 

“She tried to present me with an army of the dead.”

“The list of the sins the Master or Mistress has committed is very, very, very long.” Rose pulled a soft hand through his silver hand and found his cheek. “I have a question for you, Doctor. Why does any of that non-sense matter? You are the, my Doctor. I love you.” Rose’s smile was broad and lit the room brighter than the soft light of the fire.

“That doesn’t answer the question of what kind of man I am.”

“I love you. You senile Time Lord. I love you be it leather and Northern, crazy hair and rude, bowtie and balmy, and eyebrows and Scottish… or if you have one heart and a bit of Donna Noble mixed in.”

“Well isn’t that wizard,” he replied rolling his eyes. “Does he still say that?”

“I can neither confirm nor deny that question,” Rose said, with a laugh and she nudged him in the ribs. 

“Please help me. I haven’t felt or known myself for some time. You made me better once. I need a tune up.” 

“Getting a little worse for wear?” She smiled. “You seem better from the last time I visited. What color are your kidneys?”

“That’s on a need to know basis,” he said sternly through a smile. 

“Well, alright. We will try to get you feeling sorted out through this existential crisis of yours. Now if you would excuse me I have a Christmas to get back to.” She leaned forward and gave his lips a quick peck. “You will always be my Doctor. Merry Christmas. Til Next time.”  
\--

Rose stood up and got ready to open her real eyes. 

Rose woke up surrounded by pillows. She felt like she was in a pillow fort. Her husband was hunched with his eyes closed in concentration keeping the link open. 

“Ah, you’re awake,” he said, brightly. 

“Where did all the pillows come from?” She threw a frilly one that was behind her neck across the room. 

“You were getting all wiggly. I had to keep you still and comfortable. We own way too many pillows by the way.” The Doctor frowned. “How’d it go?” he asked tentatively. 

“He needs help.” Rose frowned.

“You’re one of the best people to give it to him.” The Doctor smiled and helped her out of the chair. “Let’s open these presents before the tree sets on fire or something.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “If anything seems pillow shaped and fluffy please ignore it.”

“Never.”

“I knew you would say that.” She threw a few more from the chair at him.


End file.
